Bufdog House Rules

[buffdog]

I have some suggestions to improve this game.

Being Crippled has little impact in the game.

Rule Revision.
Crippled: Ships are now crippled when they have accumulated 1/2 (rounded up) of their Hull points value. When crippled, all of a ships dice are cut in half. Also, a ship can only move 1 space a turn if it rolls a 4-6 on a die roll.

Aircraft Aborts happen too frequently.

Rule Revision.
Aborts: Aircraft are either soft or hard aborted. A hard abort means that the aircraft must completely abort the mission as in the normal rules. A soft abort means the aircraft can continue with its attack but only roll 1/2 (round down) the number of dice for the attack. Under the new rules an aircraft can be attacked more than once.

CV's unlikely to be involved in surface action.

Rule Addition.
Off map areas: CV's want to avoid surface combatants when all possible. CV's can launch aircraft from an off map location for inclusion into the battle. The aircraft spend a turn flying to the map. The next turn they can fly to any location on the map. The following turn they fly to the map edge nearest their CV's location and the following turn they fly to their carrier.

I'd like to hear your rules suggestions/comments. I don't want to hear any whining about these rules adding too much complexity to your game. Nobody is forcing you to use these suggestions.

[Poseidon]

I have some suggestions to improve this game.

Being Crippled has little impact in the game.

Rule Revision.
Crippled: Ships are now crippled when they have accumulated 1/2 (rounded up) of their Hull points value. When crippled, all of a ships dice are cut in half. Also, a ship can only move 1 space a turn if it rolls a 4-6 on a die roll.


Half of their hull points value? So a cripled ship would have 1/2 hullpoint and would require only half a hit to sink it :P? You mean half it's armour values and gunnery values yes? I like this rule, makes more sense. However I don't like the 4-6 for movement. Cause it doesn't make as much sense. So the ships turbines work a little sometimes, but sometimes just crap out? :S No thanks.

Being crippled has little impact though? My last game I only had an Aircraft carrier left, her two squadrons and a catalina on land. The enemy ship being cripled was the only thing keepin her alive. Cripled rule saved my hiney.

I like your other rule on the hard and soft abort.

I don't like the CV one. Whats the point? So if I put them on a carrier and the carrier is off the map, it's gonna take two turns for them to attack, two turns for them to come back, and two turns for them to attack again etc... taking a total of 6 turns for two attacks.
Why don't I just put the aircraft on a land base and re-arm them? Making two attacks in four turns rather than 6? Plus I'd want my ac on the table to at least provide AA support, if not get lucky and sink a destroyer or two if they come in range.

Edit- You don't want to hear any 'whining' about overcomplication? Then why did you ask for comments in the first place? You ask for comments, expect to get them good or bad.

[Vornargith]

The cripple option ... seems a bit harsh... crippled ships are hindered greatly ... even more if you use advanced options like turning.

The hard/soft aborted mission ... I can see some tweaks there. But the aircraft with press the attack will have to be modified as well.

The Carriers ... keep em on the map ... they're targets like all the other ships. Players will just have to move them behind islands and protect them with other ships. Sorry, but I like to be able to target carriers, and carriers did get hit ... a lot.

[aquarius]

What determines a hard or soft abort?

[LoneWolf]

if you're not happy with the cripple ruling then why not try something like this. (cause crippled can have a random affect)

Ontop of the already speed reduction and -1 to dice, and -1 dice for torpedos and -1 to armour values.

When a ship is crippled roll a dice

1-2,

Engines were affected by a hit. Ship gains a slow 1 affect. (accumulates with any slow affect on the ship eg. slow 1 becomes slow 2 and so on)

3-4,

Reduced AA and secondary. All AA and Secondarys take take a further -1 to dice rolls. (carriers it is all her guns, mains and if she has secondarys secondarys as well)

5-6,

A turret is popped. Main gun rolls take a further -1 (and maybe Main gun range is reduced ?). For people that play with firring arcs, a random turret is blown (roll a dice to see witch turret). That turret is no longer in action and can no longer fire, take the number of turrets the ship has and devide the dice rolls by that number when firring in an arc that turret could fire in, the ship now rolls that many less dice rounded down.

With carriers, her launching cappabilitys are hindered, -1 basing capacity to a minimum of 1.(Enterprise gets crippled with a 5-6 dice roll, insted of 3 planes being able to be stored on her she now takes 2, light carriers are unaffected by this but yeh I think they suffer already due to point cost)

(Eg, Rodney loses it forward most turret, now when making a boardside attack she rolls 5 less dice. Iowa loses the aft turrets, when firring in the aft arc or broadside she rolls 4 less dice.)

This is just a quick idea, I could do more for it. Like communications equipement down, the ship gets -1 flagship to a minimum of 0, Skelliton crew all main guns and secondarys get a further -1 and maybe a defenses down the ship gets a further -1 armour (i realise that some ships would be unaffected by the last 1, but it is just generic). but it was just a throw out of an idea.

Subs.

Odds, -1 again to torpedos to a minimum of 0

evens, add extra slow 1.

Would mean crippled subs can suffer heaps especaily if it is harrased.

[Conjurer]

Aircraft are too easily aborted because their armor values are too low. Simply make a rule stating that aircraft are aborted upon receiving hits equal to their armor value + 2 ( or whatever both players agree on ).

Taking carriers off the map isn't really viable for two reasons:

1) They become invlunerable to both surface and sub attacks. Not very realistic, even within the context of a beer-and-pretzels WWII simulation. :p

2) If a unit is already off the map, the player has no way to retreat said unit - an important consideration in some matches.

[Vornargith]

Crippled ... I like the random cripple affect... adds variation

Here's when the A&A game rules can be integrated ... (and I think it's been mentioned b4...

Aborts ... an attack that rolls the armor value is a "reduction" (plane keeps going, but all dice get -1 to rolls) ... an attack that rolls over armor is an abortion. Similar to Conjurer's idea adding +2, but adding 2 would make aircraft very difficult to abort.

[Conjurer]

Aircraft are too easily aborted because their armor values are too low. Simply make a rule stating that aircraft are aborted upon receiving hits equal to their armor value + 2 ( or whatever both players agree on [ my emphasis - Conjurer ] ).

Taking carriers off the map isn't really viable for two reasons:

1) They become invlunerable to both surface and sub attacks. Not very realistic, even within the context of a beer-and-pretzels WWII simulation. :p

2) If a unit is already off the map, the player has no way to retreat said unit - an important consideration in some matches.

The " +2 " was just a figure I pulled out of the air to illustrate the concept. I'd agree that it would be too much for some aircraft.

A better solution might be for both players to go over the air units in each build and boost the armor on an individual basis, since some planes won't need much if any adjustment, while others may indeed require +2 for reasonable playability.